About Kovue
With the huge expansion of sources of video viewing and enormous amounts of new video content, consumers face the problem of how to find and view the most interesting shows across all these platforms and genres.
Kovue solves this problem by creating a social sharing platform which not only brings friends together to watch shows but also lets friends know what their other friends are watching. Kovue also provides real-time automatic viewing recommendations from closest friends and allows them to watch together no matter what source. Kovue’s brand new mobile app combines the social, media and communications requirements for an enhanced and fun viewing experience.
Kovue is a unique product that links together the social networking and video entertainment markets. It creates a new type of social environment for TV and video viewers built around a common interest in video entertainment.
Background
From the start of the Kovue project we have focused on creating a completely different model of social networking built around television and video entertainment viewing. Kovue makes television viewing part of a live social networking experience and changes the way users view their video and entertainment experience. Program discovery, joint viewing and interaction with friends in real time are the keys to the huge interest in the Kovue product even before our consumer launch.
Our product strategy has been strongly supported by comments from consumers who have used Kovue or seen the product in our recent market research studies: “Kovue is different since it’s a social network which allows you to do something with someone else [watch TV together], and that puts it in a different league of social networking”.
Our team has many years’ experience in the video entertainment space working with some of the largest program networks and content distributors in North America and internationally, and we saw the potential of integrating a series of consumer video devices including PC’s, Smartphones, TV's and cable set-top boxes to enable a richer and more social video entertainment experience.
Meet the Team Behind Kovue
Martin Hannes
Martin Hannes is the Founder and President and CEO of Kovue Systems LLC, a company he founded in 2014. He has had many years of experience starting, running, and managing businesses in the media and technology sectors. Martin was CEO of publicly listed Palco Holdings, SVP of Continental and President of Roadrunner International. Over the years, Martin has also been involved in the establishment of a number of programming networks with partners such as ESPN, Discovery, MGM and Paramount Universal. In 1998 he founded the Oddssey Channel with Discovery and Scripps Howard. Martin left Road Runner in 2001 to found Next Generation Broadband which produces network control and management software and did the original development work for the new Kovue TV/social networking system.
Sammy Ho
Sammy is Vice President of System Engineering at KoVue. Prior to joining NGB, Sammy was Director of System Architecture at Road Runner. Sammy held various positions at Network Solutions (NSI) – the only Internet Domain Registrar at the time. While at Network Solutions, Sammy led the migration from NSI’s registry system to a more scalable and more reliable global infrastructure including the implementation of disaster recovery technology. Sammy’s other contributions included a number of software upgrades and performance improvements on widely used Internet applications such as WhoIs and NSI’s DNS Zone management system.
Arun Mallikarjunan
Arun is VP of Product Development and has been with NGB since 2005. He has over 10 years of experience in Software Engineering. Arun has a passion for innovation and will not shut up about it. His current passion is to leverage the power of mobile applications to help people empower themselves through technology. He has also been Volunteering at the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad since 2006.
Doorie Lee
Doorie is the Cofounder and Director of Product Development responsible for the production of KoVue. Prior to joining Kovue, Doorie worked with a number of online software companies in business and product development roles. These roles include start-ups in the DC area involved in education and non-profit fundraising.
Monica Tomasso
Monica is data-driven and works on strategy, business analysis, and marketing at KoVue. Monica has experience working extensively with a Fortune 5 global organization and as an award-winning entrepreneur. Monica’s company received national certification as a women business enterprise by the WBENC and was an honorary recipient of American Express and Count Me In for women’s economic success award. Monica provides mentorship to entrepreneurs in 1776 ecosystem.
Sasha Firsov
Sasha joined NGB in 2005. He is a senior software developer and is a core member of Next Generation Broadband engineering team. He has been a software developer for the telecom industry for over ten years and has worked with start-ups like Net2Voice, as well as, large corporations like Cisco. Sasha’s engineering responsibilities also include system analysis.